[massoluk]

His skills, HP, and just around fighting aspect, is great. But he's Chu-Chu 3.0!

I refuse to put him in my party. I have to draw the line somewhere!

What the hell you people! He's the reason I switched English Voice to Japanese Voice. Heropon is awesome. The whole race is awesome randomly picked the Chosen One. Racketeering backstabbing drug lord. Greedy smuggler. bug/mushroom eating connoisseurs. Drama! Love triangles! Broken Friendship! Rival Scientists! Magic Sage! Crime mystery and intrigue! Oh my!

[fallingdove]

I am about 20 hours in. I just finished the Eryth Sea area and am on my way to Prison Island.

It is a decent game so far but I am having a hard time seeing how this game is JRPG Jesus. There are some great ideas here but overall, it feels like it lacks the polish that transforms an average game into a classic.

Bad -
Presentation - I can look past some of the graphics because it is on the Wii but the character animations are pretty bad. As well, the armor design is not only horrendous, but pretty inconsistent from an art direction perspective.

Enemy Placement - I don't know how many times I have been fighting a low level enemy and get ambushed by a wandering high level enemy that kills my party in just a few attacks. It seems like they could have used logic to prevent these high level enemies from attacking unless they were provoked.

Shops - I would have really appreciated a UI that allowed me to see what I am purchasing. Too often have I regretfully blown money on weird looking armor that offerred only minor stat gains.

Ok -
The battle - I really enjoy queuing. Your alies are generally pretty intelligent as well. I am not the biggest fan of the targeting system though.

The Story - The story starts out pretty well and mostly avoids the standard JRPG cliches.

Side Quests - I appreciate that there are side quests that actually matter. Rebuilding colony 9 feels rewarding.

Great -
The Music - Best music I have heard in a JRPG in a while.

The World - It is large, explorable, and visually appealing. They really got this right.

[ZenaxPure]

Because his horrible VA sticks out like a sore thumb, and they completely forgot to integrate him into story after you leave the forest. He just pops up every now and then to say a "pon-something"-one liner and then disappears again. He's like a fifth wheel that gets dragged along for no reason.

Certainly can't disagree with any of that, though I find his VA to be amazing. Honestly one of my favorite characters in the game. A lot of fun to play as well. I'd probably be playing him if the tanking AI wasn't so god awful in the game.

[BlazingDarkness]

Riki is awesome! ;(

[ElTopo]

The whole race is awesome randomly picked the Chosen One. Racketeering backstabbing drug lord. Greedy smuggler. bug/mushroom eating connoisseurs. Drama! Love triangles! Broken Friendship! Rival Scientists! Magic Sage! Crime mystery and intrigue! Oh my!

The Nopon have probably the most hilarious quest in the entire game (endgame content).

And indeed, Riki is awesome. I like how they imply (spoiler for after you got the 7th) that he's actually a lot more observant/clever/mature than he might seem in the scene with Melia and Dunban.

[B.K.]

I guess it's a written rule that every JRPG must have a fuzzy sidekick with an annoying voice.

Every shounen story has to have a mascot character.

[Sadist]

Everyone loves the heropon.

And the village chief because he looks like a giant featherduster :)

[Lonestar]

What the hell you people! He's the reason I switched English Voice to Japanese Voice. Heropon is awesome. The whole race is awesome randomly picked the Chosen One. Racketeering backstabbing drug lord. Greedy smuggler. bug/mushroom eating connoisseurs. Drama! Love triangles! Broken Friendship! Rival Scientists! Magic Sage! Crime mystery and intrigue! Oh my!

All undone Because one of them gets scared of a ghost, even though its really a cook in the kitchen. He has a sore throat, which they misinterpret as a ghost moan

[AGITΩ]

I finally got in my copy from NOA yesterday.

But having beat the Euro version back in January, and having a currently huge backlog, I'll wait a bit before going in for a replay. Fist playthrough took me around 78 hours, Level 83 to beat, having only done ~20% of Sidequests and Focusing more an Affinity levels.

[Rebel Leader]

Got my wii component cables from amazon($5) and I can see a difference between composite and component

I can even see a difference in the pics I taken from a phone's camera.
----

I am currently at the marsh and I think I am too low of a level to continue so, gonna do some quests.

[ZenaxPure]

I just beat the game.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

For some reason I am OK with it though.

[ErasureAcer]

I'm LVL 73 now but I'm missing 22 intermediary art books!!!! So where's the secret shops? Still have 1 level of commerce to open up which should get me 7-8. So it looks like I'm missing 2 shops.

Just about to finish Arginathia...up the elevator after those quests from mechon consoles. And after that MF gets locked out and perhaps advanced Art Books as well? My guess is advanced books won't drop if you don't have intermediate. Thus I could be losing many advanced books if that's where they drop.

[The Hermit]

Think I'm over 160 played. LVL 72. Majestic Mordred is a pain in the ass.

I think that's the only unique I know by name alone... bastard. I cheated thoug killed him on the second floor

I'm LVL 73 now but I'm missing 22 intermediary art books!!!! So where's the secret shops? Still have 1 level of commerce to open up which should get me 7-8. So it looks like I'm missing 2 shops. Just about to finish Arginathia...up the elevator after those quests from mechon consoles. And after that MF gets locked out and perhaps advanced Art Books as well? My guess is advanced books won't drop if you don't have intermediate. Thus I could be losing many advanced books if that's where they drop.

Some books are only obtainable through uniques or quests, especially the really strong ones. And some unlock all the way trough (I guess...)

[burgerdog]

Not a fan of frontier village at all, the layout sucks.

[SecretMoblin]

Also keep in mind that if you get an advanced book for any given art, it maxes out that art's bar regardless of whether or not you used the intermediate book.

So later in the game it can be worth it to just grind for the advanced books for the art you want.

[backlot]

Also keep in mind that if you get an advanced book for any given art, it maxes out that art's bar regardless of whether or not you used the intermediate book. So later in the game it can be worth it to just grind for the advanced books for the art you want.

I've found a couple advanced books so far. How rare of a drop are they?

[ErasureAcer]

Also keep in mind that if you get an advanced book for any given art, it maxes out that art's bar regardless of whether or not you used the intermediate book. So later in the game it can be worth it to just grind for the advanced books for the art you want.

Ahh, great! So I don't have to hunt down intermediate books. Thanks. Just found 3 that I missed or were added at FV. 19 to go but really zero.

[MetatronM]

I've found a couple advanced books so far. How rare of a drop are they?

Depends on the book, but for the most part, pretty rare.

[Hiltz]

Advanced books are from gold treasure chests. You can use Rikki's skill tree link to increase the chance of silver and gold treasure chests appearing.

According to the Wiki guide, it mentions the monster/npc shop and map location of where to get intermediate and advanced books . Just so you know, it lists ALL of the characters and their movesets.

http://xenoblade.wikia.com/wiki/Levelling_Battle_Arts

[Hecatonchires Custom]

Can someone tell me where the enemy that drops Dust elements is?

[Rebel Leader]

Can someone tell me where the enemy that drops Dust elements is?

Caris Nebulae

[MetatronM]

I am about 20 hours in. I just finished the Eryth Sea area and am on my way to Prison Island. Bad - Enemy Placement - I don't know how many times I have been fighting a low level enemy and get ambushed by a wandering high level enemy that kills my party in just a few attacks. It seems like they could have used logic to prevent these high level enemies from attacking unless they were provoked.

Wow, that's really fast for a first playthrough to that point.

As for enemy placement, the game gives you Lure for precisely that reason. For the most part you might just need to pick your battles better. I can only think of a couple of places where there's a real uber badass just wandering around that could interfere in your battles, and those are pretty easily avoided.

[L00P]

I wish some of the side quests had a waypoint system. Sometimes I just have no idea where to go and have to resort to the internet :(

[Penguin]

Not a fan of frontier village at all, the layout sucks.

Right there with you. I wouldn't mind if it was strictly vertical, but branching paths and criss crossing and going outside.. makes it my least favorite environment

[Bisnic]

What's the difference between a white and a red ! on items?

[burgerdog]

What's the difference between a white and a red ! on items?

The red item is for named NPC quests.

[Zing]

Got my wii component cables from amazon($5) and I can see a difference between composite and component

Component cables are pretty much required for this game. Like Skyward Sword, it is natively rendered in 16:9, so text is hard to read and you are missing out on many lines of resolution (due to letter-boxing) when playing it in 4:3 via composite.

[Bisnic]

About to enter Galahad Fortress, and for some reason these mechons are much harder to fight than anything i fought so far, even with the anti-mechon weapons. I died three times on the Mumkhar fight, once on a group of 4 right after him, and the unique mechon a little far almost killed my whole group... when i could hardly die before. Guess i should go back and do some sidequests to lvl up a little more(im at 49).

[Hecatonchires Custom]

Is it just me or does Dunban sort of takes the role of the main character after he joins? He seems to get more lines than "Hey I just had a vision, remember me guys" Shulk. Not that I mind, he's a lousy main character anyway.

Riki's clearly the best character, he's hilarious.

[Hiltz]

Shulk's simply a dull character who keeps on talking about the same bloody thing over and over again. He'll always be a douche bag. Dunban's just cooler and has more interesting things to say compared to Shulk. In addition, Dunban's relationship with the other characters helps make his stake in the story more a bit interesting.

[Penguin]

About to enter Galahad Fortress, and for some reason these mechons are much harder to fight than anything i fought so far, even with the anti-mechon weapons. I died three times on the Mumkhar fight, once on a group of 4 right after him, and the unique mechon a little far almost killed my whole group... when i could hardly die before. Guess i should go back and do some sidequests to lvl up a little more(im at 49).

Also be wary A lot of those enemies have like spike damage as well. So sometimes, its better to not attack them in certain positions.

It REALLY annoys me when they have topple SPike damage.

[Zornica]

So I'm having trouble trying to prioritize what stats I should be focusing on for each character. So far I only have three: Reyn, Shulk, and Sharla. I understand defense should be a priority for Reyn since he's a tank, but should I even be bothering with ether for these three? None of them seem to have "magic" unless Sharla's bullets count (which I don't think, right?).

Sharlas bullets and most of her other arts are ether based, you can read that in your arts menu, also: if an art is ether based, it has a fine line in the background.
your priority however should be agility, because it is THE most important stat in the entire game. It raises accuracy and evasion, which means you will need less healing, and thus can enjoy all sorts of party combinations much more.

Right there with you. I wouldn't mind if it was strictly vertical, but branching paths and criss crossing and going outside.. makes it my least favorite environment

Actually it is strictly vertical for the most part... on the way up, you meet about 80% of all the important npcs. furthermore, it is easier to find people, because they hardly move at all, und spawn at 6 and 18 o'clock. there are only 2 exceptions.
If you have trouble finding a certain npc, this might help:
Map 1
Map 2

[The Awesomest]

OK I'm trying to find these stupid Deluded Ignas. I feel like I've dragged myself through the entire swamp. Where the heck are they?

[ZenaxPure]

Well I've had time to recover from the end of the game and have questions for those that have beat it and done all the endgame super bosses and such.

So first a story related question, note this is complete end of game spoilers:

So what exactly was Alvis? He said he was a computer program and such but for what exactly? Was he some sort of AI built into that space station from the start or something else entirely? I was honestly confused by that bit in the final explanation of things. Oh also, space station - I am oddly OK with that. Yes it's freaking ridiculous but it made me hate Zanza less since it gave him more a character than an angry god dude. The fact that he was once just a curious/ambitious scientist makes all the difference in the end. I have a bit of a soft spot for insane endings to be honest, especially as long as they make some sort of sense which Xenoblade pulled off very well.

Anyway, for actual endgame stuff how challenging are the high level unique mobs in respect to the final boss? I was I assume about 6 or 7 levels to low for the final dungeon (everything was red or yellow) but I literally breezed through the entire end of the game and killed Zanza in 2 chain attacks that were almost back to back, it was pretty underwhelming to be honest. My question is will any of the harder challenges in the game really even be a challenge? Anything note worthy because in general I found Xenoblade to be a bit on the easy side.

Right now I plan to finish up Colony 6 reconstruction because I had a ton of fun with that, but not sure I want to do anything else.

[Killer Yakuza B]

I've found a couple advanced books so far. How rare of a drop are they?

Depends on the book, but for the most part, pretty rare.

Advanced books are from gold treasure chests. You can use Rikki's skill tree link to increase the chance of silver and gold treasure chests appearing. According to the Wiki guide, it mentions the monster/npc shop and map location of where to get intermediate and advanced books . Just so you know, it lists ALL of the characters and their movesets. http://xenoblade.wikia.com/wiki/Levelling_Battle_Arts

Actually, they're pretty easy to get if you know which unique drops the book you want: once you get it to drop a gold trasure chest, simply save before opening it. If the book you want isn't there, just load your save file again. Rinse and repeat until you get the book you are after.

Just be careful of uniques sometimes respawning when you load, but that's only a problem if they're strong and is easilly avoided by killing them away from their spawn point.

Anyway, for actual endgame stuff how challenging are the high level unique mobs in respect to the final boss? I was I assume about 6 or 7 levels to low for the final dungeon (everything was red or yellow) but I literally breezed through the entire end of the game and killed Zanza in 2 chain attacks that were almost back to back, it was pretty underwhelming to be honest. My question is will any of the harder challenges in the game really even be a challenge? Anything note worthy because in general I found Xenoblade to be a bit on the easy side.

Oh, most definitely yeah, there's some pretty challenging uniques, specially if you go in unprepared. You're almost guaranteed to et your ass kicked the first time you encounter some of the higher leveled ones and it's really satisfying once you beat them, so I recommend at least checking them out. Other than that, some of the best quests are endgame quests, so try a few of them.

[White Man]

They're an enormous improvement over the wiimote\chuck, but the pad controls are also a bitch. I'm not missing a way to change them anywhere, am I? This and icarus would probably rank as faves if not for this.

Sorry for complaining about stuff that's already been complained to death

[chaosblade]

About to enter Galahad Fortress, and for some reason these mechons are much harder to fight than anything i fought so far, even with the anti-mechon weapons. I died three times on the Mumkhar fight, once on a group of 4 right after him, and the unique mechon a little far almost killed my whole group... when i could hardly die before. Guess i should go back and do some sidequests to lvl up a little more(im at 49).

Consider not using anti mechon weapons. They are weaker than normal ones, plus with enchant you get a damage bonus against mechon.

[whalleywhat]

Bad - Presentation - I can look past some of the graphics because it is on the Wii but the character animations are pretty bad. As well, the armor design is not only horrendous, but pretty inconsistent from an art direction perspective.

I'm finding it pretty entertaining how absurd all of the armor looks. Reyn will be wearing something utterly ridiculous, and then I'll switch it out and be treated something even crazier.

Not a fan of frontier village at all, the layout sucks.

It would be fine if there were more warp points.

[SecretMoblin]

They're an enormous improvement over the wiimote\chuck, but the pad controls are also a bitch. I'm not missing a way to change them anywhere, am I? This and icarus would probably rank as faves if not for this. Sorry for complaining about stuff that's already been complained to death

Nah, you can't change them, sadly. There are different ways people adjust to the control scheme, none of them perfect.

But I need a right stick for the camera, so there's really no question which method I prefer.

[White Man]

Nah, you can't change them, sadly. There are different ways people adjust to the control scheme, none of them perfect. But I need a right stick for the camera, so there's really no question which method I prefer.

Yeah, same here. It's not that the controls are necessarily bad. It just seems like they took a look at the face button setup on most rpgs and swapped buttons around just for the hell of it. I'll know em in a day or two.

Icarus, well, I need more time with that one, but the controls in that as of right now aggravate me. No really Circle Pad support is way lame. I know they are married to motion and touch stuff, but if they had used the CPP you'd be able to see amusing stuff on the bottom screen much better.

I probably wouldn't have complained but two games in a row that are awesome but nutted by suspect controls. Nintendo doesn't do patches, right?

[zyxwvu4321]

I've just gotten to the area after getting access to the 4th party member, and yeah, this game deserves to be played on Dolphin some. I've to the GAF Wii Homebrew found, but is there an easy to follow guide of some sort to go from "Homebrew Installed" to "ISO for Dolphin?" Thanks in advance, sorry for newbishness!

[chaosblade]

I've just gotten to the area after getting access to the 4th party member, and yeah, this game deserves to be played on Dolphin some. I've to the GAF Wii Homebrew found, but is there an easy to follow guide of some sort to go from "Homebrew Installed" to "ISO for Dolphin?" Thanks in advance, sorry for newbishness!

Follow the guide for installing the Configurable USB Loader. You can move rips from that to your PC for Dolphin.

[zyxwvu4321]

Follow the guide for installing the Configurable USB Loader. You can move rips from that to your PC for Dolphin.

Cool, thank you.

[djtiesto]

Is there a way to trigger one of your party members to use a special move, or switch between them, while in the heat of battle?

I'm just about finished exploring the swamp, game is amazing so far although combat is a bit repetitive and there are times when I feel the game just may be too overloaded with content for its own good. Don't think it's this so called "RPG savior" though, since I didn't think RPGs needed saving in the first place! (apart from them actually being translated and released in America)

[chaosblade]

Is there a way to trigger one of your party members to use a special move, or switch between them, while in the heat of battle? I'm just about finished exploring the swamp, game is amazing so far although combat is a bit repetitive and there are times when I feel the game just may be too overloaded with content for its own good. Don't think it's this so called "RPG savior" though, since I didn't think RPGs needed saving in the first place! (apart from them actually being translated and released in America)

Only after a vision, you can go talk to a party member and "warn" them, and that will give you the option to select an art to use. It costs one bar of the party gauge to do that though.

No way to switch characters mid-battle. If you find the combat repetitive you might try switching your lead character if you haven't. All the characters play at least a bit differently. Using Sharla would probably mix things up a lot.


And I'm finally getting around to ripping my NA copy. Going to play it on Dolphin all the way through this time.

[Lonestar]

Heh, just looked up the voice actors. Melia is voiced by Jenna Louise Coleman, who is the next Companion on Doctor Who :D

[Bisnic]

Consider not using anti mechon weapons. They are weaker than normal ones, plus with enchant you get a damage bonus against mechon.

Yes but im not always playing as Shulk, and the idiot AI will not always use enchant right at the start. I have to use Dunban because the AI sucks at holding aggro with him.


By the way, i've been playing with the CC since the beginning, started with fresh new batteries, been playing 50 hours so far and its still at 3 bars!

Either my Energizer batteries are that good, or the CC use a lot less power than the Wiimote+Nunchuck, or there is some kind of magic in my golden Zelda Wiimote.

[wsippel]

Well I've had time to recover from the end of the game and have questions for those that have beat it and done all the endgame super bosses and such. So first a story related question, note this is complete end of game spoilers: So what exactly was Alvis? He said he was a computer program and such but for what exactly? Was he some sort of AI built into that space station from the start or something else entirely? I was honestly confused by that bit in the final explanation of things. Oh also, space station - I am oddly OK with that. Yes it's freaking ridiculous but it made me hate Zanza less since it gave him more a character than an angry god dude. The fact that he was once just a curious/ambitious scientist makes all the difference in the end. I have a bit of a soft spot for insane endings to be honest, especially as long as they make some sort of sense which Xenoblade pulled off very well.

Alvis was the AI/quantum computer supervising the experiment. A quantum could be seen as a monad -> Monado. He was the only thing to survive the experiment and became almighty, but he's just a computer designed to supervise and analyze - he needed input. So he recreated the two scientists heading the experiment and made them "gods".

[Ultratech]

Anyway, for actual endgame stuff how challenging are the high level unique mobs in respect to the final boss? I was I assume about 6 or 7 levels to low for the final dungeon (everything was red or yellow) but I literally breezed through the entire end of the game and killed Zanza in 2 chain attacks that were almost back to back, it was pretty underwhelming to be honest. My question is will any of the harder challenges in the game really even be a challenge? Anything note worthy because in general I found Xenoblade to be a bit on the easy side.

They're pretty damn tough if you go in unprepared. Keep in mind that max level is 99. The final boss' level is somewhere around ~81?.
The Super Uniques reach up to 100+ (the strongest being around ~120). So you'll need some good Gem setups to actually try and hit the higher leveled ones.

Also be wary A lot of those enemies have like spike damage as well. So sometimes, its better to not attack them in certain positions. It REALLY annoys me when they have topple SPike damage.

It's super annoying when the enemies have access to Topple Stun or Topple Sleep, like those two Uniques in the Final Dungeon.

[Rebel Leader]

Advanced books are from gold treasure chests. You can use Rikki's skill tree link to increase the chance of silver and gold treasure chests appearing. According to the Wiki guide, it mentions the monster/npc shop and map location of where to get intermediate and advanced books . Just so you know, it lists ALL of the characters and their movesets. http://xenoblade.wikia.com/wiki/Levelling_Battle_Arts

*bookmarks*
That'll come in handy